Anthropology 316MC - Material Culture

This class examines the role of material culture in American life as a historical lens to interpret the values and meanings people assign to things. We will consider the world in which we live as a means to better understand how human behavior both affects and is affected by material culture. All societies articulate with and are, in part, embodied in and informed by material culture. This is especially true of modern American culture with its "embarrassment of riches" and things. In this class, which draws on historical and anthropological method and theory, we will consider various ways in which American and other cultures around the world consciously and unconsciously define themselves by the things--or artifacts--people choose to produce and consume, live in, play in, read, drive, eat, and wear.

Prereq: 8 credits in anthropology.